Thanksgiving is tomorrow and therefore, I do not have class for the remainder of this week. I, personally, am going home to spend time with my parents. But, I do know many people who are staying at school. While it is a nice break from everything, I probably am going to study for parts of it. I say this because I wanted to address different ways people are thinking about using this break. I know several people who are burnt out and just need a break from studying, so they are really going to relax and enjoy themselves. Now, I am not saying those people are not doing the smart thing. In fact, if they need a break then by all means they need a break so they can come back and study efficiently. I say this because I found myself in such a state about 2 weeks ago. I just could not look at a textbook anymore and retain anything.

Looking back it was actually an interesting experience. I have never reached a state where my brain actually rejected any new information of a subject. However, I just took some time to back away from studying and do some self-maintenance like going to the gym and lifting heavy stuff. I am feeling refreshed and functional again and that is probably why I am planning on studying through break. There are multiple ways to get through this, but like any other sappy Thanksgiving post you will see on the internet, it is nice to remind ourselves of the things we are thankful to have which ultimately factor in our ability to get through things (and I did just type that with a Ryan Remolds voice in my head). I am thankful for my family, friends, and SO. I am also thankful for you, whoever is reading this. This blog has been a great place for a pause and reflection which has been nice. And While it is very new, and personally I think it’s not that great of a blog, I still get a few readers who like the content and this is awesome!

This was a recent topic of conversation among my friends and I thought I might as well write my two cents here for it. As the title suggests, I do not trust news articles about science, specifically ones that says, “New study reveals “blank”. The reason being, I tend to see a lot of articles getting the science wrong.

Now, I just want to say I am not trying to sound pretentious at all. It’s just I remember there being a time where I would get the latest science news from the news. However, with further education, I started to see more and more errors in these articles.

Sometimes, the statements were flat wrong. Such as a misunderstanding of what certain things are. I remember one article just missing the mark on the concept of Glycolysis. However, I usually find the articles over exaggerating a study and not really looking at it critically. For example one article may have looked into a small protein in the body that may rise due to a particular food and some studies seem to say there is a slight connection between that protein and weight gain. With that, the news article may boldy claim, “new study reveals blank to cause weight gain”. It’s just not an accurate representation and actually worrisome because that is how misleading information can spread more and more. Every new research needs to be read critically with what the findings actually mean and the experimental setup to obtain those findings. If we all do that instead of just connecting A to B or making up that A is B, then maybe we wouldn’t see things like, “anti-vaccinations”. But that is just my two cents.

Before we begin, I just want to say that I am not sponsored at all by this company. I’m just a fan sharing the cool things I bought.

One of my hobbies is weightlifting. Something about lifting heavy stuff only to be able to lift more heavy stuff really makes me happy. Anyway, Because of this hobby of mine, I thought it would be neat to start a box subscription. Truth be told, I’ve been wanting to start one for a while, but there really was not one in which I would probably enjoy the contents of each month, or one that was not above $50. Anyway, this subscription box, is called Muscle Box. Sounds so “Bro-sciency” in my opinion. However, the contents are pretty nice.

This month, the box had:

Shirt

2 meat sticks

Water bottle

Protein chips

Workout

This seems to be the trend of the box where it would contain clothing, protein, something to have in the gym, and a workout routine. All of these things are definitely usable and not really fad-like or for just one particular type of person which is why I like this subscription.

Studying in medical school differs from any of my previous experiences. Mainly from the fact that it is heavy memorization. This is probably the reason people struggle. Within my brief time at school, I have seen how people struggle with their studies. Ignoring all those who just procrastinate and not study until the day before the exams, there are plenty of students who struggle to pass, at least at first. People may memorize things well, but have a difficult time connecting the dots. Others may have a better ability in seeing and understanding the bigger picture, but have trouble memorizing all the details. I can confidently say, I am the latter. There is a few who struggle with both or excel in both, but it seems a majority of the people fit in one of the two categories above.

My study methods will not work for everyone, in fact I am still fine tuning it. But it is nice to take a step back and analyze it as a whole (hence this post). Because my issue is memorization, I use the program Anki, heavily. I make each card at least one whole lecture slide. I do this because I don’t want to miss any detail that is important, but I thought different. I do this right off the bat. In fact, my notes are in the cards themselves, meaning I don’t take notes with other platforms like Onenote or pen and paper.

To be honest, I don’t like this method because I like taking traditional notes. And I see similar things with many of my peers. They avoid a certain study method, not because it doesn’t work, but because they prefer to do things a particular way. However, sometimes you have to do things differently for them to work. I noticed a huge difference in my grades when I focus on my weakness of memorizing things vs just studying notes and making concept maps to connect the details. I know this uneasiness comes from the fact I am doing things a lot differently from most of my life. However, I guess this is good practice for actual medical practice in terms of always trying to keep an open mind and doing things differently for better results even if it is out of your comfort zone.

It is almost Thanksgiving which means it is also the winter holidays. Therefore, it is almost the end of first semester of my medical journey. Today, I’ve been thinking of all the things that took place already. One thing that caught me by surprise in medical school was all the drama. Not to say drama is bad. In fact, life is made interesting because of it.

In a way, I am thankful for the drama as well as saddened by it. I feel bad for anyone else who had a hard time with other things going on in their lives. The small glittery thankfulness comes from the reminder it gives. While I can’t speak for everyone, obviously. The drama in my life helped put some things in perspective and helped me remind myself that life is not just studying. Now I am not saying, medical students shouldn’t study hard. On the contrary, we should always be learning. However, we should not get bogged down on things we didn’t know, but instead get bogged down on things that can be learned, not just in medicine but in all aspects of life. Sounds cliché AF, I know. I know.

A friend of mine got back from a huge Asian grocery store and gave me some tapioca balls. Naturally, I had to try and make bobba tea.

For the tea portion, I used green tea matcha, some sweetener (I keep forgetting to get actual sugar), milk, and vanilla extract.

I’ve heard you are supposed to have the balls sit in water overnight. I may have accidentally let them sit for over 24hrs.

The process turned out to be pretty good, but I realized something. The straw makes the

drink. I didn’t have the huge straws you can get to suck in the bobba. Therefore, drinking/eating turned into a huge mess, unfortunately. With that said, probably going to avoid making anymore for a while.

In medical school, you have to make a lot of sacrifices. By that I mean, relationships end, hobbies get lost, and empathy drops down. I joke about the last one, but it really is a serious issue. Anyway, what starts off as a big transition with all your time going into studying, efficiency gets built up and you start finding time to do some of the things that make you happy. Those things might not necessarily be overnight gaming sessions or raging sessions in a club, but could consist of going to a movie once in a while. I say this because a friend of mine has just showed me the Pokemon Detective Pikachu trailer, and I am finding myself with so much excitement. I can already imagine people becoming enraged that this is happening. However, I think it will be funny and Ryan Reynolds. I don’t think I have to say more.

I am curious though, this movie seems too good to be true. Like it feels like a joke, so I don’t know, but I am hoping it’s actually a thing